Why Some Find it Hard
Some people find their driving lessons a walk in the park and for some getting a driving licence is one of the more challenging hurdles in life. Why is this? Well there are three things a learner driver is trying to improve during their driving lessons. Knowledge, skill and confidence, when you have enough of all three you will pass the driving test. It is my experience that there is little difference between the ability of learner drivers to improve their knowledge and skill, after all driving is a fairly simple skill and the rules are mostly common sense.
The two main differences between a natural driver and a slow learner are normally confidence and mental approach.
Confidence: If you find driving lessons challenging, try to find a way to increase your confidence and you’ll find that you will start to improve. Not only that, you’re likely to start enjoying your driving lessons and may even look forward to them.
However improving your confidence during driving lessons can be akin to growing an extra set of limbs… Well maybe not that hard but challenging none the less. Unfortunately there is no quick and easy way to improve confidence. Confidence will normally grow with success, so the best advice is to be patient and only attempt tasks that you’re likely to achieve, however big or small they may be. When you’re attempting what you can achieve you will normally start to flourish.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you will improve your confidence by being brave and jumping in at the deep end. In doing this, all your fears about learning to drive are likely to come true leaving you feeling less confident than you were when you started. Your driving instructor should manage your lessons well and ensure you’re only subjected to achievable tasks. Spending too much time on something that is currently out of reach can leave you feeling demoralised. Better to practise something more achievable and work you way up, getting to the top rung of the ladder from the bottom in one step may never work but climbing one rung at a time is easy.
Mental Approach: It’s also very important that your mental approach is going to help you learn and not hinder you. A mental approach that may hinder you is one where you’re trying to pass the driving test from the very beginning.
If you have never driven a car before you will have no skill when you start driving lessons, this is perfectly normal as you have no practise and it takes practise to get skill, rarely are people born naturally with the skill of driving.
So when you start your driving lessons, instead of trying to drive like a test standard learner, try to spend your time learning how to drive. Put your full focus into learning the car, taking your time with the pedals and hand controls to get a good feel for them. Go slow to give yourself time to read the road signs and road markings to allow yourself to learn how the road works. Definitely don’t worry about if you’re too slow for a driving test or the fact you have missed 3 opportunities at a junction, none of this matters until you’re in the latter stages of learning. All that matters is that you’re learning how to drive, not already able to drive, after all, if you could already drive, why would you need driving lessons?
Also, until you have a good mental approach you’re unlikely to be successful which will impact your confidence and slow the learning process. So when you want to learn, put your time into learning, the car that’s very close behind who would like you to go faster will have to wait until they can pass you. We were all learners once.
